Fareham boss Stiles: FA didn’t have to curtail Wessex League season – we could have restarted in April and again in August

Pete Stiles believes a campaign curtailment for clubs from steps 3-6 of the non-league pyramid could have been avoided.
Fareham manager Pete StilesFareham manager Pete Stiles
Fareham manager Pete Stiles

The Fareham Town boss suggested the authorities should have paused and continued proceedings from August instead of bringing a second successive non-elite season to a premature end.

Unsurprisingly, the FA curtailed another pandemic-wrecked campaign with immediate effect with an announcement on Wednesday evening.

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Despite the unprecedented circumstances, clubs are still having to come to terms with another season being ended early after last year's null and void verdict.

But Stiles - whose side had played just 11 Wessex Premier games in 2020/21, only Brockenhurst had played fewer - is adamant there should have been a different outcome.

He says seasons could have been restarted in April, paused again for the summer, and completed next term to make it a 2020-22 campaign.

That way clubs wouldn't have to be dealt the blow of all the hard work over the past two years feeling like it was for nothing.

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Twelve per cent of Wessex League clubs told the FA, via the survey they completed in January, they favoured an August restart.

Stiles said: ‘I still don’t know why they didn’t do the season over two seasons, like I’ve said before, because you don’t know what’s round the door.

‘If this pandemic comes back again you could have gone in and played another month's worth of games this season, still had a break to get your pitches up together and resumed from where you left off and added extra cup competitions in next year.

‘That way you wouldn’t have had two seasons null and void.

‘Instead of having 40 games to play you might have had 25 and to make up the shortfall of games you just turn around and add some more cups in.

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'At least that way you’re going to get a result. I could look at it as I’ve been at Fareham four seasons and two of them have been null and void.

‘Sooner or later you want to start promoting and relegating teams and if you keep nulling and voiding every league it’s never going to happen.

‘Whether it takes two seasons to play a season or whatever, you need to get some results in.'

Fareham's season is not completely over, though, after they were informed the FA Vase would be played to a conclusion.

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The Reds have a daunting third round trip to Plymouth Parkway to look forward to in April.

In preparation for that, Stiles revealed he'll have his squad back in on March 30 - the day after Government restrictions allow.

And he revealed his squad will not stop training right through until May - even if they exit the FA Vase in west Devon.

He added: 'I’ve got them out running now individually. Some of them are alright but some of them have eaten too much and drunk too much and they’ve got to start getting themselves into shape.

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‘We’re not going to stop. We’re going to tick over from now until the end of the season; whether that’s a meeting once a week or a fortnight, we’re going to keep ticking over.

'Players have never had this long off before so it’s going to take them time to get back up to speed.

‘There’s no reason why they can’t get in and tick over.'